564mn web users boost rise of China’s new media
May 15, 2013, 8:14 am

The number of mobile internet users in China hit 420 million by the end of 2012 [Xinhua]

China has the world’s largest new media market, according to new research findings.

The number of online users in China reached 564 million at the end of 2012, with the number of mobile internet users hitting 420 million.

The data was published in a “Report on China’s Rising New Media” by the official Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday.

China’s internet penetration rate has exceeded 42 per cent and the report expects the online population to reach 600 million very soon.

A recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has shown that China is rapidly becoming one of the biggest e-commerce markets in the world with total sales in 2012 reaching $211 billion.

The fast expansion of network coverage has fuelled a surge in a variety of internet applications, which range from instant messaging and video-sharing to shopping and banking, as well as social networking, the report says.

The spectacular rise of new media, social media specifically, has led Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce firm to buy an 18 per cent stake in China’s twitter like micro-blogging platform SinaWeibo for $586 million.

Xinhua’s report cited WeChat, the popular instant voice messaging app developed by internet giant Tencent, as an example of the increasing surge of new media.

The application has attracted 300 million registered users in just two years.

The growing number of applications will help new media become China’s most significant social and information platform, the report says.

57 founding members, many of them prominent US allies, will sign into creation the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday, the first major global financial instrument independent from the Bretton Woods system.

Representatives of the countries will meet in Beijing on Monday to sign an agreement of the bank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. All the five BRICS countries are also joining the new infrastructure investment bank.

The agreement on the $100 billion AIIB will then have to be ratified by the parliaments of the founding members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing in Beijing.

The AIIB is also the first major multilateral development bank in a generation that provides an avenue for China to strengthen its presence in the world’s fastest-growing region.